Firefox 89 - Who thought this was a good idea?

[Graybeard]

I like the change and typically I hate change. The spacing of bookmarks is great, farther apart with a larger font, the old font was tiny and the lines very close together. I have dozens of BM, they are all folders, and I find this new layout to be better. The tab fonts are smaller and I have the tool bar but don't really look at it.

I stopped using FF a couple of years ago. Chrome and Brave are fast, FF is literally less than half the speed of them! I have done many speed tests over the past 2 years and FF is just so slow it is painful - ie 94 mbps with Chrome and Brave but 42-47 mbps with FF. All I use FF for now is to get around having to turn off my ad blocker to be able to see a site. I use Reader Mode in FF and can then read it.

[RetiredAt55.5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter Yeah. Better the devil I know. The overall problem with this type of thing is programmers' confusion of "different" with "better." I think it comes from breathing software development air, like asbestosis comes from the air. It screws up critical thinking. I see Micro$oft will soon be giving us "different" too/June 24 announcement. I can hardly wait.

I beg to differ - these design decisions aren't made by the programmers (at least not in my IT jobs).

The artsy fartsy design teams came up with these stylistic, navigation, and appearance "improvements". We were just innocent bystanders told to implement them, and we complained about them ourselves.

[triangle]

I like the new look better than the old. Mostly because of the brighter colored window theme. The previous window title bar (various tabs) was black and has been updated to light gray. I found the black title bar lead to more accidental window focus clicks. As many webpages now use a dark theme, causing the title bar to disappear into the background of another overlapping window. Now it is much easier to navigate IMO.

[Dalmore]

My biggest gripe applies to both Chrome and FF. I hate that they both auto-play and float any video on the page (mainly ads). Muting the sound is the only option and they intentionally make it difficult to manage. I have actually started playing with the new browser Brave, which allows you to turn off auto-play, but the jury is still out as to if it is overall better or not.

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalmore My biggest gripe applies to both Chrome and FF. I hate that they both auto-play and float any video on the page (mainly ads). Muting the sound is the only option and they intentionally make it difficult to manage. I have actually started playing with the new browser Brave, which allows you to turn off auto-play, but the jury is still out as to if it is overall better or not.

FF has had this for a while, under Privacy & Security > Permissions:

[Time2]

WOW! I'm a FF user for years, but I just clicked on Edge which I never have used. I just did some time checks to load new threads on this site, Edge loads the pages in well less than 1/2 the time of FF. The problem I have is Edge is full of ads, where FF has none.

Can I add ADblock to Edge and still get the same speed?


EDIT.



I just added Adblocker Plus to Edge, it's still fast.

[jim584672]

Edge is just Chrome de-Googled and Microsoft-ed. Same code.

[Ncc1701]

I was a huge FF fan until MS Edge came along. So much faster and easier. AND I can use Chrome extensions with it.

[finnski1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by easysurfer Not sure if I'm describing properly or not. But I just counted that I now have 20 icons on the bookmarks toolbar. Then there is the two right pointing angles for the dropdown. Didn't count how much previously, buy I say maybe 15 icons if lucky.

I only have 10 on mine?

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetiredAt55.5 I beg to differ - these design decisions aren't made by the programmers (at least not in my IT jobs). ...

Sorry, I was casting a wide net. UI designers are effectively programmers IMO even they aren't directly writing the code. Yes, the coders are probably somewhat innocent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Cosmic Avenger FF has had this for a while, under Privacy & Security > Permissions:

I have had this switch turned on for a long time and still get plenty of those obnoxious video pop-ups.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ncc1701 I was a huge FF fan until MS Edge came along. So much faster and easier. AND I can use Chrome extensions with it.

I have been a Microsoft hater for so long that it's like a reflex action. The way they crammed Edge down everybody's throat and force-fed the default option was very much in character for them. I use Edge a couple of times a week to display a page that FF, with Adblock and Ghostery, doesn't properly render. Beyond that, no thanks.

[Time2]

I've just now decided I'm in the wait and see if I can be convinced that I should not switch to Edge. My tests showed it loaded ER pages more than twice as fast. But, what is the downside?

[Dalmore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Cosmic Avenger FF has had this for a while, under Privacy & Security > Permissions:

I have that set to block all, but websites with videos still pop out those videos to the lower corner and very often start playing. Maybe the latest version will be better about preventing it from starting, but the pop-out is still there.

[Redbugdave]

Give Seamonkey a try! Mozilla based Netscape. Remember that? https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Hm. I don't usually see videos, but then I block most third-party scripts, and will add a custom rule to AdBlock if an animated GIF or video annoys me, so that may be why I hardly ever see them any longer.

[statsman]

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing the following with Firefox v89. For some reason, when I go to close a tab (clicking on the "X" on the tab), I manage to close one of the adjacent tabs in addition to the tab I wanted closed.

I don't recall this happening with prior versions, and if it did, it was happening far less often than it is now. I am not sure if this is a setting or bug, but whatever it is, it's most annoying. Anyone else seen this?

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by statsman I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing the following with Firefox v89. For some reason, when I go to close a tab (clicking on the "X" on the tab), I manage to close one of the adjacent tabs in addition to the tab I wanted closed. I don't recall this happening with prior versions, and if it did, it was happening far less often than it is now. I am not sure if this is a setting or bug, but whatever it is, it's most annoying. Anyone else seen this?

I just tried, but do not see this bug. Maybe start up without extensions and see if it clears up?

[statsman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 I just tried, but do not see this bug. Maybe start up without extensions and see if it clears up?

I just thought of something else that is happening, but it has nothing to do with Firefox. Despite not having changed any settings in quite some time, I've noticed my mouse recently performing double-clicks when I only wanted a single click. If I did that on a tab not at the end, I could quickly close two tabs in a rows. Actually, I've noticed this a lot since the "upgrade" of Windows 10 to "20H2" last month. I will switch out to another mouse and see if this continues.

[ychuck46]

I use Brave as my browser on all devices. And if a site hiccups on that browser, Chrome. Stopped using Firefox awhile back.

[2cheap2eat]

Check out Brave browser, it's one of safest for privacy. Highly rated on various review sites.

https://brave.com/

[gooddog]

I'm using V.89 and have not seen any difference. That said, everything was tweaked years ago to make FF look the same regardless of what 'improvements' they came up with. Desktop still looks like XP too, but using windows 10. Stubborn I guess.